The woman spent the night in the Auchope mountain refuge hut. Photo: Northumberland NPMRT
A farmer helped ferry rescuers to aid an injured walker stranded high on the Pennine Way.
The woman called for help on Monday after spending the night in a refuge hut on the Border Ridge near the northern end of the national trail.
Border Search and Rescue Unit was alerted to bring the woman to safety as severe weather approached.
Damon Rodwell of the rescue team said: “While Storm Ophelia was hammering the west coast of Ireland, and the sky over much of the UK had turned a weird orange, laden with sand from the Sahara kicked up by the winds, Border Search and Rescue Unit received a call for assistance from a 38-year-old woman who had become stranded near the northern end of the Pennine Way.
“The casualty had suffered a sprained ankle the previous day after slipping while descending from Auchope Cairn on the final leg of her 268-mile Pennine Way walk from Edale.”
The walker managed to reach the refuge hut and decided to spend the night there in the hope that she would have recovered sufficiently to make her own way off the hill in the morning.
Mr Rodwell said: “Unfortunately she was still unable to walk in the morning and with the weather deteriorating rightly decided to call for assistance.
“The team made their way to the remote Sourhope Farm in the Bowmont valley – the closest road to that section of the route – and gratefully accepted the generous help of farmer Rob Flintoff, who ferried a couple of team members and a stretcher to the hut on his rough terrain vehicle.
“After establishing that no medical treatment was required she was transported down the hill and transferred to a team vehicle for onward transportation.”
Team leader Stuart Fuller-Shapcott said: “The lady was clearly competent and had completed more than 90 per cent of her walk when she had her accident.
“It’s a pretty steep bit of ground coming off Auchope Cairn, with loose rocks and tussocks, and she was simply unlucky. She did well to reach the safety of the refuge hut, and we’re glad she made the call when she did.
“A few additional hours’ delay could have meant our having to evacuate her either by stretcher or helicopter, which in the storm that blew up in the afternoon would have been a much more serious undertaking.”
